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23 hours ago
A NASA space telescope on a mission to map millions of galaxies has turned on its detectors for the first time, capturing images of tens of thousands of stars and galaxies.
The SPHEREx, which is short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, was launched on March 11. The new images, taken on March 27, confirm that all systems are "working as expected" and that the telescope is focused correctly, NASA said in a news release. The telescope's focus cannot be adjusted in space.
The space agency released six images, each colored differently to represent a range of infrared wavelengths. Each image was taken by a different detector on the telescope, NASA said. All of the images show the same area of the sky, NASA said. The colorful images are flecked with bright spots, which NASA said are sources of light like stars or galaxies. Each image is expected to contain more than 100,000 detected light sources, the space agency said.
One of the first exposures captured by NASA's SPHEREx. The observatory's six detectors each captured one of these uncalibrated images, to which visible-light colors have been added to represent infrared wavelengths. SPHEREx's complete field of view spans the top three images; the same area of the sky is also captured in the bottom three images. / Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"Our spacecraft has opened its eyes on the universe," said Olivier Doré, a SPHEREx project scientist at Caltech and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in the news release. "It's performing just as it was designed to."
SPHEREx will begin routine science operations in late April, NASA said. At that time, the space telescope will begin taking about 600 exposures a day. The observatory is capable of detecting infrared light. Each six-image exposure captures up to 102 shades, NASA said.
The color differences allow scientists to study the composition of objects or the distance to galaxies. Researchers will be able to study topics like the universe's physics and the origins of water in our galaxy, NASA said. The telescope is also capable of capturing "faint, distant galaxies."
This NASA diagram shows how the different wavelengths reveal different image aspects. The two insets at right zoom in on sections of one image, showcasing the telescope's ability to capture faint, distant galaxies. These sections are processed in grayscale rather than visible-light color for ease of viewing. / Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"This is the high point of spacecraft checkout; it's the thing we wait for," said Beth Fabinsky, SPHEREx deputy project manager at JPL, in the news release. "There's still work to do, but this is the big payoff. And wow! Just wow!"
SPHEREx works differently than space telescopes like the Hubble and James Webb, NASA said. It takes a broader view of the sky than previous models, and will map the entire celestial sky four times over the next two years. That data will be combined with the results of the smaller telescopes to "give scientists a more robust understanding of our universe," NASA said. The space telescope is also expected to collect data on more than 450 million galaxies and more than 100 million stars in the Milky Way, NASA said.
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